Mobily announced its investments and new expansions in submarine cables, terrestrial networks, data centers, and landing stations at the Capacity Europe 2022 Conference, which took place in London from October 18th to 20th, 2022. The conference brought the carrier community together under one roof to discuss current and future partnerships, collaborative projects, and the transformation of the wholesale telecom ecosystem fueled by rapid digital transformation. Mobily participated as a Gold Sponsor at the event and shared its outstanding infrastructure expansions and development initiatives to achieve its strategic goals, contributing to the Kingdom's Vision 2030 to accelerate Digital Transformation. Eng. Thamer Alfadda, the Senior Vice President of Wholesale & Carrier Services at Mobily, said: "We accelerated national and international infrastructure expansions efforts across submarine, terrestrial networks, and DC capacity, as well as new partnerships to enable a carrier-neutral internet ecosystem that is vital for the sustainable growth of ICT sector and contribute to Kingdom's digital hub vision." Mobily's infrastructure expansions spans several areas, including submarine cables, terrestrial networks, data centers, and landing stations. Mobily has also joined two new submarine cables, SEA-ME-WE 6 and Africa-1 landing in Yanbu station and Duba, which will contribute to strengthening the new digital infrastructure in the kingdom, and serve the needs of Mobily customers from both the private and the public sector. Furthermore, Mobily has also highlighted its recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Telecom Egypt to construct the first point-to-point submarine cable connecting KSA to Egypt. The MoU aimed to explore various new ways to connect international capacity to Europe in the west, through Telecom Egypt's network, and to the GCC in the east, through Mobily's network, which is made possible by expanding the two companies' networks and connecting them to neighboring countries. Benefiting from the Kingdom's strategic geographical location, Mobily has recently invested in border touchpoints with UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen to increase capacity and ensure seamless connectivity for Saudi terrestrial crossing. moreover, modernizing the Saudi National Fiber Network (SNFN) with end-to-end network transformation and agile automation by constructing the Middle East's first 5G and B2B-driven, ultra-broadband optical backbone network. Carrier neutrality is a key pillar that Mobily emphasizes to build its digital hub ecosystem, they have recently partnered with Equinix, a top-tier and the largest global data center and Internet Exchange platform provider, to establish full carrier-neutral Internet Exchange (IX) in the JED1 data center facility. This significant traffic gateway creates a digital bridge between KSA, Europe, Asia, and Africa and aims to improve the peering ecosystem in the region. JED1 Data center will also function as a network-dense and neutral interconnection hub, which makes a compelling commercial case for global and regional ISPs, Operators, OTTs, Content providers, and Enterprises to land and peer in Jeddah, therefore decreasing latency with the removal of trombone effect that arises from the traffic to different hosting locations. Mobily has also developed a strategic plan to expand Data Center capacity, where overall DC capacity will reach 10 MW, supporting Mobily's digital hub. With these significant investments in national backbone, global interconnectivity, integrated digital infrastructure, Data centers, and service delivery capabilities, Mobily aims to strengthen its position as a leading digital enabler partner for operators and digital ecosystem players in the region.
